Once closed, Macklowe's acquisition will be the most expensive residential building purchased for conversion since Maurice Mann and Africa Israel bought the Apthorp for $391 million in 2007, data from Real Capital Analytics shows. The deal marks the return of developers doing large-scale luxury condominium conversions following the real estate downturn.

"This is a litmus test [for whether] a condo conversion is a viable strategy for the next few years," said Ben Thypin, senior market analyst at Real Capital Analytics. "This is a pretty bold move for [Macklowe]. If he can execute, that's great, he's still got it. But if he can't, I don't think that will surprise many people, because his basis is so high."

Ben Carlos Thypin

I am currently the co-founder of Quantierra, the world's first data driven real estate brokerage and investment manager. In my former life as Director of Market Analysis at Real Capital Analytics, I worked with press outlets large and small to provide them with great data and insightful commentary. Here are some of the results of this collaboration. For the rest, please check out the News Archive.